{"id":308320,"date":"2026-02-24T21:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/308320\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T21:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:01:09","slug":"how-narendra-modi-reshaped-india-israel-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/308320\/","title":{"rendered":"How Narendra Modi reshaped India Israel ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2017, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a> made history. He touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport<\/a>, becoming the first Indian PM to visit the Jewish state, shattering decades of diplomatic hesitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis visit is an occasion to rejuvenate the bonds of our friendship,\u201d Modi declared at the time. \u201cIt is my singular honor to be the first-ever prime minister of India to undertake this groundbreaking visit to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alon Ushpiz, a former Foreign Ministry director-general, Israel\u2019s ambassador to India from 2011 to 2014, and current CEO of Alon International Bridgeways, says the shift in tone from New Delhi was unmistakable and personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really likes Israel. He appreciates it,\u201d Ushpiz told The Jerusalem Post. \u201cI think we don\u2019t have many countries where we can attach the title of \u2018strategic partnership,\u2019 but with India, this is absolutely justified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s ascent to power and his subsequent embrace of Israel mark a dramatic departure from India\u2019s history. In 1947, India voted against the establishment of the State of Israel at the UN, and for four decades, New Delhi<\/a> remained one of the loudest voices for the Palestinian cause. Yet, during his 2017 trip, Modi did not visit the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The two nations now \u201ccomplement each other in mutual needs and capabilities,\u201d Ushpiz said.<\/p>\n

The story of the man who orchestrated this geopolitical pivot is steeped in local myth. Born in 1950 in a small town in the Gujarat state, Modi\u2019s origins were humble.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes from a very modest background,\u201d Gaurav Sawant, India Today TV\u2019s senior managing editor, explained. \u201cHis father used to sell tea at a railway station. His mother used to wash utensils or clothes in other people\u2019s homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi himself recounts a childhood marked by daring, including a tale where he caught a baby crocodile from a local pond.\u201d I caught it and brought it here,\u201d Modi recalled in an interview. \u201cOur mother asked, \u2018What is this?\u2019 saying, \u2018No, this is a sin. Put it back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This scrappy, risk-taking persona would come to define his political career. However, his rise was not stainless, as noted by Bar-Ilan University\u2019s Dr. Lauren Dagan Amoss.<\/p>\n

In 2002, during Modi\u2019s tenure as chief minister of Gujarat, religious riots resulted in the death of over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stain accompanied him until 2015 officially,\u201d Dagan Amoss said. \u201cHe was effectively banned from entering the US, and when Barack Obama entered office and invited Modi to visit, it was the first time he received a visa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi has always rejected the accusations that he allowed the violence to spread, arguing that \u201cfor unrest, a single spark is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since taking the premiership in 2014, ending 30 years of coalition instability, Modi has instilled a muscular security policy. Following terror attacks emanating from Pakistan, India launched airstrikes against terrorist infrastructure, a move that broke from the passive \u201cstrategic restraint\u201d of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, when Pakistan would strike India, there would be limited or no response, but we saw a change. Modi was not scared or taken aback by the Pakistani nuclear blackmail,\u201d Sawant said.<\/p>\n

Aman Sharma, India\u2019s CNN-News18 news director, highlighted the speed of this new doctrine. \u201cIndia\u2019s image always was that we are a nation which, you know, always suffers but does not react,\u201d Sharma said. Yet, under Modi, \u201cin four days, India went after not only terrorist infrastructure but even hit Pakistan\u2019s military infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi’s ideological roots in Hindutva<\/p>\n

This assertion of power is rooted in Modi\u2019s ideology of Hindutva. \u201cBy law, India is a secular, multicultural state,\u201d Dagan Amoss said. \u201cAnd basically, when Modi arrived in 2014, he said, \u2018Hinduism is at the center\u2019 and everything else implied by that statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modi believes that \u201cfor a tree to be tall and strong, it has to be connected to its roots. You have to know your history \u2013 what your civilizational history is all about,\u201d according to Sawant.<\/p>\n

Domestically, Modi has driven a \u201cMake India Great Again\u201d agenda, characterized by rapid digitization and economic formalism. In a controversial move to fight corruption and fake money in circulation, he announced on national television that \u201c500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes will no longer be legal tender.\u201d<\/p>\n

While critics argued that the move paralyzed the economy, supporters point to the fact that now India is the fourth-largest economy in the world, particularly helped by the explosion of digital connectivity. \u201cWe were at about 250 million people in approximately 2014 with internet access, 1771966868 reaching 960 million in 2024. That\u2019s been huge,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>\n

This economic hunger has direct implications for the Middle East. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, a project championed by the US, envisions a trade route linking India to Europe via the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no IMEC without India<\/a>,\u201d Ushpiz asserted. \u201cIt is the great hub of communication, manufacturing of goods, and a very, very large hunger for energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Modi continues to consolidate power, facing criticism for centralization and media control but maintaining high approval ratings, his partnership with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears solid.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu and I agreed to do much more together to protect our strategic interests,\u201d Modi has stated.<\/p>\n

For Ushpiz, the logic is simple: \u201cWe are managing a strategic relationship with a country that is, in terms of population, the largest in the world… There is an immense, strong hunger for economic progress based on technology, which covers everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In July 2017, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made history. He touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport, becoming the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,85,3792,46,20065,43,2396],"class_list":{"0":"post-308320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-india-israel-relations","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-narendra-modi","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-prime-minister"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}